Add cPanel Backup Step 1: Schedule Name
Step 2: Select the cPanel Accounts/Domains
2. Time-Based Retention Retains multiple version files in the backup up server based on the age of the version files.
Retention policy for backed up files
Version-Based Retention
StoreGrid can retain backups of multiple versions of a file based on the version retention count specified. The number of version files to be retained can be specified as any value from 0 to 99 with a default setting of 5. The backup version count can be 0 when the Intelli-Delta Backup is disabled in Advanced Options. This option is useful when you wish to store just the complete latest version of a file.
For example, if the version file retention count is specified as 5, then StoreGrid retains the latest five version files. These files can be restored from the backup server at any point of time. When the sixth version of the file is created, StoreGrid backup server automatically deletes the first version.
Note: When Intelli-Delta option is disabled for a backup schedule, StoreGrid will back up the entire file if the file was modified since the last backup schedule. In such a case, StoreGrid will retain multiple versions of the entire file as per the version retention count configure for that backup.
Time-Based Retention
StoreGrid can retain version files in the backup server based on the age of version files. Default setting is for 5 years, meaning the version files will be retained in the backup server for 5 years and then will be removed automatically. The maximum number of versions that can be created during the retention period can also be optionally further configured. There are two options:
Any number of versions can be created within this retention period - This is the default setting. If enabled, StoreGrid retains all the versions created during the specified retention time period.
Restrict the maximum number of versions that can be created within this retention period to 'n'. - If this option is enabled, StoreGrid will clean up the version files based on both; retention time period and maximum version file count. For example, if the retention time period is set to 1 month and maximum version file count is 5, StoreGrid will retain only the last five version files created within the last one month and versions older than one month with be deleted.
Step 4: Scheduling (Decide When To Backup)
This field has the following options from which any one can be chosen.Run Every Few Hours
Choose the hours/minutes interval between each time StoreGrid must run. If StoreGrid is restarted in the interim, the backup will run once StoreGrid starts. Thereafter, StoreGrid automatically reschedules the next backup after the period you’ve set. For example, if you created a backup schedule at 10 am and set it to run every 1 hour, StoreGrid will first run the schedule at 10am and the next scheduled time will be 11am. However, if at 10.15am, StoreGrid is restarted, then the schedule will run once at 10.15am and the next scheduled time will now be set to 11.15am. Additionally, you can also select the days in which this schedule should run. For example, if you do not want to run this backup schedule on Saturdays and Sundays, uncheck the check box against these days. If the "Select all days" check box is checked, then the schedule will be run on all the days of the week.
Run Daily
Choose the time at which the backup should run daily. This will execute the backup everyday at the time you have provided. Unless you’ve selected the “Run this Backup each time StoreGrid restarts” option in Advanced Options, StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time only.
Run Weekly
Choose the time and the day of the week the backup should run. StoreGrid will execute the backup every week on the particular day and time chosen. Note that you can select multiple days of the week if you wish to run the backup on multiple days of the week. Unless you’ve selected the “Run this Backup each time StoreGrid restarts” option in Advanced Options, StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time/day only.
Choosing this option will do the backup only once immediately. The backup will then be put into ‘suspended mode’. If you wish to run this backup again, you’ll have to manually select it from the List Backup Schedules page.
Step 5: Additional Full Backups
Typically, you would do a full backup the first time you backup your data and thereafter only do incremental backups. However, like in a typical enterprise scenario, if you want to run full backups periodically and run the incremental backups in between two full backups, then you can configure the scheduling for how to run the full backups here.
For Run Every Few Hours and Run Daily backups, the Additional Full Backup settings will allow you to configure
daily/weekly/monthly additional full backups. For weekly backups, only Monthly additional full backups are possible. For Run Once Only backup, you cannot configure additional full backups.
Additionally you can specify the maximum number of full backups that need to be stored in the server. For example if you configured a weekly backup and additionally if you configure a monthly full backup, then StoreGrid will take a full backup the first time and then weekly do an incremental backup. The next month, StoreGrid will do a new full backup and subsequently run the weekly incremental backup over this full backup. After 6 months you will have 6 separate full backups in the backup server along with weekly incremental versions under each of the 6 full backups. If your policy is to retain only backup data for 6 months, then you can configure "Store maximum of 6 full backups" here. On the 7th month, StoreGrid, after finishing the 7th full backup, will delete the first full backup along with its weekly incremental backups thus retaining always the last 6 month backups.
Advanced Options (Optional)
If you want to configure some additional advanced options - like, CPU utilization, Compression settings, etc. click on the Advanced Options button.
Advanced Backup Schedule Settings
There are four options here on how the backup should be scheduled.
Run this backup each time StoreGrid restarts - If you enable this option by checking the check box, then this backup schedule will be run every time StoreGrid is restarted or the machine is rebooted
irrespective of the actual schedule time of this backup schedule. This is to ensure that any modified or new files created when StoreGrid was down are backed up as soon as possible. In case of the ‘Run every…’ scheduling option, backups will run each time StoreGrid restarts – by default.
Run this backup immediately after saving this configuration (thereafter, Backups will be
scheduled as per the schedule stipulated) - If you enable this option, then this backup schedule will be executed once immediately after you save this backup schedule – even if it's not yet ‘time’ as per the schedule. For example if you configure a daily backup at 10.00 AM but you configured the backup at 8.00 AM, then the backup schedule will be run once immediately (8.00 AM) and then as per schedule (e.g. daily at 10.00 AM).
Attempt to run this backup every 5 minutes in case of non completion because of a problem (Network error etc.) - If enabled, the user can choose to reschedule this backup every 5/10/15/20/25/30 minutes, whenever an attempted backup is incomplete because of a network error, server crash etc. The number of times the backup will be rescheduled (due to an error) can be configured to be in between 1-5 or unlimited, with the default setting as 5. This is to ensure that an incomplete backup is completed as soon as possible without waiting for the next actual schedule time. Note that this option is enabled by default. Data Integrity Check - StoreGrid supports data integrity check where the data sent from the client machine is verified for integrity at the backup server. When a file's integrity check fails, StoreGrid flags that file as skipped and the file is then again backed up during the next backup schedule.
Other Backup Settings
Set CPU Utilization
For each backup schedule, you can also specify the CPU utilization level as Low, Medium or High. When you set the CPU Utilization to high, the backup will be really fast - but the backup process may affect the speed of other active applications. If CPU utilization is set to Low, the backup will take longer but will be done in a
non-intrusive manner allowing you to comfortably work on the computer as the backup continues in the background. For backups which are done every day or every week in ‘off-hours’, the CPU utilization can be set to High. Actual performance is obviously a function of your individual machine and your network. We encourage you to experiment with different settings to figure what works best for you.
Set Compression
If compression is enabled, data will be compressed in the client before it is uploaded into the backup server. Enable - Compresses the data before backing it up. It might reduce the rate at which the client can send data to the backup server but it might save significant bandwidth and time when the data is backed up to a remote server over a WAN/Internet with limited bandwidth speed. Also, this saves disk space in the backup server.
No Compression - This option is suitable (fastest) for backing up data within a local network where bandwidth is not the limitation, but occupies more space on destination machine as no compression is being done.
Intelli-Delta Backup
When a backup schedule is executed, StoreGrid checks if the file has changed since the last backup. If yes, then StoreGrid can either backup the full file all over again or it can backup only the modified content (incremental). If "Intelli-Delta Backup" is set to ENABLE, only modified content in a file is backed up. If set to DISABLE, the full file will be backed up every time the schedule runs. Needless to say, an incremental backup is faster.
Pre & Post Backup Commands (Optional)
This feature provides the ability to configure running custom actions before and after executing a backup schedule. The custom actions may include running an application or some script files.
Pre & Post Backup Commands
When is this feature useful?
If an application has exclusively locked a file and you need to close the application before StoreGrid can backup that file, then you can run a pre-backup command to close the application and then a post-backup command to open the application again after StoreGrid successfully backs up the file.
How does this feature work?
Whenever a backup schedule starts, StoreGrid will start the Pre Backup commands and wait till the timeout value. After completing the Pre Backup commands, StoreGrid will transfer the configured files & folders to the backup server. After transferring the configured files and folders, StoreGrid will run the Post Backup Commands. If multiple servers are configured for the backup schedule, then both the Pre and Post Backup commands will run while backing up to each of the servers.
Pre & Post Backup command settings:
You can provide maximum of 5 Pre Backup commands and maximum of 5 Post Backup commands for each backup schedule. Both the Pre and Post Backup commands are optional.
Command Name: This filed is mandatory. This is the command that should be run. The command should be provided with full path. If the command name is in the system command path, then providing full path for the command is not necessary. The command can be an executable file such as application exe, batch files, script files etc.
Example: C:\MyTools\myzip.exe. A simple zip tool which compresses the given files or folders. Arguments: You can provide any command line arguments for the command to be executed. Example: For the Command C:\MyTools\myzip.exe, the arguments may be 'High Zip Replace "D:\Project" myproject.zip' [without quotes]. Here, the High may denote high compression, Zip denotes zip file format, Replace denotes replacing existing files, 'D:\Project' denotes folder to compress and 'myproject.zip' denotes the target compressed file name.
Working Path: This field specifies the directory path from which the Command has to be run. If this field is left empty, then the command will be executed from the StoreGrid working path [ StoreGrid Home]
Example: 'D:\Project'. The command will be executed from the directory D:\Project.
Timeout: This filed is used to specify a timeout value, in seconds, for the command to finish
execution. StoreGrid will wait for so many seconds for the pre and post command to finish running. If the command still runs beyond the timeout period, then StoreGrid will abruptly terminate the
command and will continue with the backup schedule.
Please note that if you provide -1 value, then the command will run till completion and StoreGrid will wait till the command completes. If command never completes, then StoreGrid may just infinitely wait without proceeding with the backup schedule.
Example: 60. For the myzip.exe command, the myzip.exe command will compress the given project folder up to 60 seconds. If the myzip.exe completes before the timeout period, say 15 seconds, then StoreGrid will immediately continue the next Pre Backup Command [if configured] or continue with the backup schedule.
So, the example command will look like below: Command Name : C:\MyTools\myzip.exe Arguments : High Zip Replace
Working Path : D:\Project Time out : 60
The whole command will be run up to 60 seconds as below: C:\MyTools\myzip.exe High Zip Replace "D:\Project"
Saving the configured backup
Once all the components/accounts to be backed up are chosen and the configuration options are set, you simply need to click on the "Configure/Save Backup” button to activate the backup as per the schedule- on to the configured backup servers.
Troubleshooting Tips
I receive the error "Attempt to validate the existing authentication details failed. <Actual Error Message>" on clicking Next button in the first page after selecting the host and the user. Cause 1 : If the passord for the selected user is incorrect
Solution 1 : Click the second radio option for Authentication Password to enter the correct password and click Next